Variegated squirrels kept as pets in Germany have been implicated in the transmission of a bornavirus to humans from which three people have died.

The tail is long and densely bushy; in Mexico it is black, sometimes with white tips to the hairs giving it a frosted appearance.

[5] This squirrel is native to Central America, its range extending from Mexico southwards through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

[1] The species is diurnal and seldom descends to the ground; it spends the night in a nest it builds which is sometimes in a hole in a tree but more often is constructed of leaves and built in the fork of a branch close to the trunk.

Three squirrel breeders who lived in this region and associated with each other, died over a two-year period from a progressive encephalitis caused by a novel virus.